Weba Info & Updates

News, updates & stories from our community

Your Church Budget – and Home Mission

Who prepares your church budget?

Who discusses how best to serve God’s purposes in the allocation of funds?

Who decides what to give to Home Mission each year?

Although we recommend that each church gives at least 5% of general income to Home Mission, (to support Specialist Teams, Associations, and Home Mission grants), this decision finally rests with each church.

Therefore the number of grants our network is able to award each year is very much in the hands of those of you who help plan church budgets – and those of you who approve them at church members’ meetings.

The good news is that WEBA churches gave more in the first half of 2016 than they did in the first half of 2015. We thank God for his amazing provision, and the churches for their decision making!

As decision makers it’s important that you’re aware of what these grants, and also the ongoing support of Regional Ministry staff, is achieving around this region – so here’s a quick snapshot of some of the WEBA situations that you are currently supporting:

Pill Baptist Church could easily have taken the decision to close in the middle of 2015. Since then, a Home Mission grant has enabled Jon Thurlow to give one day per week to redeveloping and re-envisioning the church, which is now expressed in a weekly Sunday gathering in a Sheltered Housing complex, a monthly cafe church, and Lyfe groups to develop discipleship.

Stonehouse Baptist Church is on the move – the two growing congregations are moving from the original church building and a community centre to meet on one site in a local secondary school. A grant from Home Mission is enabling Anne Dunn, who led the church through a time of change and growth while she was a minister in training, to continue as its minister through these exciting times.

At the Cairn, in Knowle West, South Bristol, Phil and Alice Lawrence are continuing to provide an established presence on this estate where so many mission initiatives come and go. They’re developing initiatives such as Phil’s guitar club.

We’ve already heard this year from Portishead where Dan and Beth Doherty are building new Christian community through Forest Church and other groups.

Owen Green has joined The Stowe in East Wichel, Swindon, as minister -we’ll hear more from them in our December update.

Alisdair Longwill is giving one day per week to the missional community in Bussage, Stroud. As with many of these situations, there’s a complex web of developing relationships through the local community cafe and food bank, which have already led to a small weekly Bible study.

Kami Kalsi in Upper Rissington continues to connect with residents in this village without a church through sport and other activities – he’s now running boxing classes!

We’ll continue to bring you updates on all these situations and others throughout the year. Each one is small, and in some ways fragile, but each represents a powerful call to share the good news of Jesus in a particular part of this region. Please pray for each of these individuals and the communities they work with, and remember these stories when you meet to consider, draw up, and approve your 2017 church budget.

Bob Morris, Mission Enabler for Youth, Children and Families

“I am passionate to see young people reached, discipled and released to serve Jesus; and to develop and envision those who seek to do the same”

Alex Drew

Seventy-two and WEBA Administrator

I’m delighted to be part of a team that seeks to enable people across our partnership network for mission on the ground; to bring Jesus into the heart of our communities.

Rob English

Association, Trust, and Property Manager

“What the Trust Company does is often described in legal terms. But the heart of what we do is missionary work. Whilst buildings are not the church, for the local community, they do represent what we do. We do have a responsibility to make sure our buildings are a physical expression of what we’re trying to do.”

Gary Woodall

Regional Minister

“The part of the job that challenges me most is ‘how do we develop networks?’
We can do life much better together than apart – together we have much greater resources, and can challenge and inspire each other. Rather than an individual church asking ‘how can we keep going’ you could have a group of churches asking ‘how can we reach this valley?’”

Nigel Coles

Senior Regional Minister

“Let’s dare face reality. Even looking at the most favourable statistics, 93% of people in the UK have no church connection…however, as I travel around WEBA I see so many signs of life and growth.”

Alisdair Longwill

Regional Minister

“We want all our churches to understand what their giving to Home Mission actually achieves. This page in the ‘info’ section is your starting point for that journey,”